Firstly, Image Entertainment
are kind of liberally using the 'Femme Fatale' moniker here.
Essentially these are three more 'bad' sci-fi flicks from the 50's (which in
DVDBeaver's mind makes them good campy fun!). It is pretty similar to
Image's Watch The Skies set (reviewed
HERE), where they take 3 previously released of the same genre (or
they find a link) and combine them for a handsome discount into one Boxset. Devil Girl from Mars
is the best of the three, although I honestly had a ball watching each of
them. The Astounding She Monster is just awful. I don't know what
leans me to these nostalgic pulpy productions, but if you are at all into
these on a late Friday night - then the discount you pick up from buying
this set (as opposed to individual) is well worth it. Bad films, weak
transfers but they somehow have me enthralled. I love this stuff as a
deviation from the Art cinema that we frequently watch and review.

Product Description: These girls aren't just bad,
they're inhuman! Tangle if you dare with the Devil Girl from Mars, a
cosmic vixen on a mission to retrieve virile men for her home planet -- and
anyone who refuses, dies! Then gangsters and their socialite hostage hole up
in a cabin that happens to be the stomping grounds for The Astounding She
Monster, an Atomic Age babe whose touch can kill! Finally, pack up your
gear and head to the Mesa of Lost Women, where Jackie Coogan ("Uncle
Fester" from The Addams Family) uses spider venom injections to unleash a
bevy of sex-starved predators on the Mexican desert! These curvaceous
creatures from drive-in's golden age are so enticing, they'll leave you
screaming for more!

Synopses:

Devil Girl from Mars - 1954

Women of Earth, beware! This
cosmic vixen has come for your husbands, boyfriends and brothers. Her mission is
to bring men back to Mars to mate with a planetful of sex-starved she-devils who
need fresh breeding stock to repopulate the red planet. And men, if you don't
perform, you might just be incinerated by Chani the Robot or heaved into the
atomic pile that powers their ship. A beautifully crafted production, unique
special effects, inspired production design, and classy international beauty
Hazel Court make this a true gem of Atomic Age entertainment..

The Astounding She Monster - 1957

Hollywood gangsters kidnap a Beverly Hills
socialite in her Cadillac convertible and whisk her off to a remote mountain
cabin where a curvy "starlet" in a spandex spacesuit lands in her "white light'
spaceship to bring handsome leading man Robert Clarke a message and to heat up
his hormones. One problem with this cosmic encounter--her touch is deadly! An
Atomic Age cult classic that could have only come out of the Hollywood B-movie
factory of the 1950s. If tough gangster dialogue, sleazy dames, petty crooks,
rubber snakes, and Ed Wood films speak to you, this is the one!

Mesa of Lost Women - 1953

If crazed scientists, weird, sexy women and
giant spider puppets excite your juices, "Mesa of Lost Women" has the bite! The
infamous Dr. Arana (Jackie Coogan) is conducting bizarre experiments in the
forbidden Mexican desert of Zarpa Mesa. It is rumored that he has created a race
of rabid super-women by injecting them with a "spider venom" derivative so
powerful and perverted that it transforms them into deadly sexual predators!.

Directed by Dave MacDonald
France 1954

A spaceship from Mars lands near
an inn in Scotland, and a female Martian named Nyah holds the residents prisoner
in preparation for an invasion. She is intent on capturing men for breeding
purposes.

The above description seems to promise, if not necessarily a good movie, at
least a certain amount of campy fun; however, the funniest thing about it is in
the credits, where it is announced that the movie was based on a play. There's
something mind-blowing about being made aware that there is a play out there
called "Devil Girl From Mars"; it also clues you in on just how talky and
stagebound this epic will prove to be.

This is the best transfer
of the three in this boxset. It is the only one progressively rendered
and also has the least damage. Like the others there are no subtitles or
extras. Audio is weak but acceptable.

The film has some good
atmosphere and is not that bad. There are even some decent
effects.

A radioactive alien lands on earth and frightens a geologist and some
kidnappers in a mountain cabin.

The title is quite catchy, and the poster is very memorable; between the two
of them they probably constitute seventy-five percent of the budget.
Certainly, they show more creativity than anything actually in the movie;
when I say that the most impressive thing in the movie is the blurry
camerawork they use when photographing the alien to show its radioactivity,
I'm grasping at straws. There are also rumors that Ed Wood was somehow
involved with this, mostly I suspect because of the presence of Kenne Duncan
and the general incompetence on display, but if he did have a hand in it, I
suspect it would only be with some bits of the script that have a slight
Woodian edge to them.

Tack onto the 'combing' of this
non-progressive transfer the fact that an effect was used in production
to give a 'ghosty glow' to the title character and she can be pretty
hard to focus on.
Again no subtitles or extras.

The film is very poor - but in the fun way that we enjoy. Lots of
camera errors and bad acting. It looks like it may have been shot
quickly and at someone's cottage. It's a real hoot!.

The ads for this movie featured a picture of Tandra Quinn, and asked the
cinematic question "Have you ever been kissed by a woman - LIKE THIS?" In the
movie, she kisses nobody, but she does an eccentric dance, for which she is
shot.

The movie also features about fifteen minutes of the most awful narration
imaginable by Lyle Talbot. It's not his fault; it's just the words he was given.

The soundtrack consists of a constantly strumming Spanish guitar, punctuated by
the sound of a gorilla trying to play the piano. Okay, I don't know for sure
that it was a gorilla at the piano, but I do know that George Barrows is in the
cast. The soundtrack is so "impressive" that no less a personage than Ed Wood
lifted it for use in his movie JAIL BAIT.

The movie features the most ingenuous, congenial, courteous and well-mannered
psycho in screen history. It's a pity he isn't scary.

The movie pioneered a rarely-used cinematic technique; once everyone is stranded
on the mesa, the action is enhanced by having close-ups of dwarves edited in at
random. I think the technique is rarely-used for a very good reason.

Jackie Coogan is in the movie. He has a deformed left eye just above the big
black mole on his left cheek. When he's being friendly, he'll take off his
glasses so you can get a good look at it.

The attempts at females
being sexy in this film are quite obvious and funny. The DVD transfer is
non-progressive and shows a lot of damage. No subtitles or extras. The
film has some positives, but it appears it got derailed in production
attempting to be... something else. It is perfectly suited to join the
other two in this boxset. We can only recommend to
those who know what they are in for - and can have a laugh at it.